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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

It was a Day of LOVE

Let me say that The Husband is not the most romantic person at all.  I had to listen to rant and raving on how Valentine’s Day is a scam and how girls get so much holidays and guys only have fathers day.  Blah blah blah.  My response was, “If you could give birth, you could have more holidays”.  As you could see, I’m totally looking forward toward child birth. 



In hopes to make him feel better, I decided to cook for him a dinner.  He has been the our chef for the last couple of months due this pregnancy.  As some of you know last week I was on the fence on what I wanted to make.  I was torn between making his favorites or try something completely different.  I knew that if made something complete off the wall he would look at the food funny.  Instead I made dishes I haven’t made for a while with a little twist.
My Valentine’s menu:
App: Baked French Onion
Entrée: Citrus Cornish Hen stuffed with Wild Rice
Side: Sautéed Asparagus  with Bacon
Dessert: Coconut Panna Cotta with a Mango Puree
French onion is The Husbands favorite soup.  He gets it every time we go out to dinner.  As for the Cornish hen, I haven’t made this for a good 3 years now.  I jumped at the chance to make it when I found the hens for sale.  To add a little twist, I marinated the hens in orange juice. 
Baked French Onions
(makes about 4 servings)
2 Lbs of Onions
1/2 Stick of Butter
3 Tsp of salt
3 Tsp of Sugar
1 Liter of Beef Stock
Garlic powder to Taste
4 Tbs of Worcestershire Sauce (you may want more depending on your taste)
Toasted French Bread
6 Oz of Gruyere Cheese
Directions
  1. Place the butter, sugar, and salt into a large stock pot and cook until the butter is all melted on a med-high heat.
  2. While that is cooking, sliced up the onions to either chunks or slices.
  3. When the butter is melted, add the onions to the pot.  Cook the onions until it starts to sweat, about 5-15 minutes.
  4. Reduce the heat to a low heat in where it starts to simmer.  The soup needs to slow cook for a couple of hours. 
  5. The onions will be come quite tender and the liquid from the onions will be come the base of the soup.  It took about 2 hours until the onions was cooked down.  I would occasionally stir to make sure the onions wouldn’t burn on the bottom. 
  6. When the onions is cooked down, add the stock.  Bring to a boil.
  7. Slowly add the garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce to taste. 
  8. When the soup reaches the flavor you would like, pour the soup into a deep bowl. 
  9. Pre-heat the oven to 350. 
  10. Top the soup with the toast bread and cheese
  11. Bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
  12. Serve hotIMG_3973
Look at that cheese goodness
Citrus Cornish Hen with Wild Rice
Prepared Wild Rice
2 Cornish Hens
Butter
Marinate *This is all to taste
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Oregano
Orange Juice to cover
Directions
  1. Place the hens in a zip lock bag the night before and add the marinate. 
  2. This needs to be marinate for at least 8 hours.
  3. Pre-heat the oven to 400 F
  4. Take the hens out of the zip lock back.
  5. Take the wild rice and stuff the hens and place on a baking sheet.
  6. Place it in the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes.
  7. Take out the hens after 15 minutes and cover in butter to create a nice brown texture.
  8. Bake for 30 minutes.  Rotate the baking sheet and put another coating of butter.
  9. Bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the hens is fully cooked.
  10. Serve
IMG_3978IMG_3980
This is The Daughter size chicken.  She did say Ewww when she saw it in the oven :D
IMG_3968
Coconut Panna Cotta *The recipe will come in a later post.

I have a little surprised for you guys.
In honor of my 200th post, I would love to give to one of you a $55 gift card from the CSN Stores!  For the last couple of months, I haven’t had the desire to eat much of anything.  All I have been craving is bread, bread, and more bread.  To get yourself qualified, give me a recipe of your favorite bread recipe either in the comments area or message me.  I’m open to all but as a hint I made it my goal to master croissants.  

Update: I totally forgot to include the deadline:  February 21, 2011.  I will pick the name on Tuesday.  I figured I will be doing my paper last minutes at midnight on the Monday like always :D. 
Good Luck everybody! 

22 comments:

  1. Yummy French Onion Soup, and the cornish hen looks so appetizing.
    By the way, I nominated you for the Stylish Blogger award. Please drop by my blog to accept it :)

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  2. Mmmm, next year I'm making you my valentine and you can make me dinner. As for bread, I'm still working on figuring out my favorite recipe. I made a chalah thingy a while back that's on my blog if you wanna take a look, but my next experiment will be the black bread...you know the one I'm talking about. If I can get that one figured out, I'll totally share.

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  3. Love Anna's comment! Yep... we will all make you our Valentine's!!
    Lovely dinner you made, I'm eager to see the Coconut recipe that is coming. It's fun to put together a menu like that, isn't it? You did a nice job!

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  4. Your hens look so good, and I love the wild rice stuffing. My favorite quick bread is Cranberry Orange Nut Bread, which is on my blog, dated 1/11/11.

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  5. Wow....it all looks so good. Excellent dinner.

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  6. Sounds like a wonderful menu!! I don't blame you for craving bread through your pregnancy. I'm not pregnant, and yet I also crave bread all the time, haha. My favorite bread I've made is this focaccia from Amy's Bread. It is the best focaccia I've ever tasted! Seriously, so spongy and delicious! http://www.mission-food.com/2010/11/amys-bread-cookbook-review-focaccia.html

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  7. What a meal! I'm sure he was over the moon!

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  8. Gosh that is one heck of a meal!!!! The cheese bubbling over the french onion, and that roast cornish hens...oooh the juice! The flavor! The pleasure!!

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  9. What a feast! That roasted corn hen looks so good!

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  10. Congrats on the 200th post! I'm not much of a baker but this is one of my favorite bread recipes - wheat baguettes! http://funandfearlessinbeantown.blogspot.com/2010/10/king-arthur-flours-wheat-baguettes.html

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  11. these look wonderful
    congrats on the 200th post

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  12. What a lovely dinner! I can't wait to read the post for the coconut panna cotta, I'm absolutely addicted to coconut!

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  13. Lols love your response to your husband about if he could give birth he could have more holidays!

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  14. Everything looks just lovely (especially the baked french onion!) Thank you for sharing this with me...and for your kind words on my own blog!

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  15. What a wonderful menu you put together! I think your husband's pretty lucky to have you!

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  16. That's an awesome menu you put together. haha, your response to your hubby give me a chuckle!

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  17. Sana pala naki-V-Day ako sa inyo! LOL! ang sasarap ng food nyo eh...

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  18. oh what a delicious menu!

    Favorite bread recipe: http://www.simplylifeblog.com/2011/02/whole-wheat-popovers.html

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  19. it sounds like you made a delicious valentines day dinner, those hens looked wonderful, I haven't had one in many years.
    Congratulations on your 200th post!
    Cheers
    Dennis

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  20. I love the sound of that soup and can't wait to give it a try. It's my favorite as well. Many congratulations on 200 posts and I look forward to reading many, many more. Here's my bread recipe:

    Kneadless Bread
    Yield: 1 loaf

    3 cups bread flour (do not use all-purpose flour please)
    1/4 envelope quick-rise yeast
    3/4 tablespoon coarse sea salt
    1 1/2 cups warm water

    Start preparation 20 hours before cooking time. Combine all ingredients in a big bowl with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together but isn't over-mixed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter in a warmish spot for 12-20 hours.

    Twelve to 20 hours later, the dough will look bubbly and will be very sticky. With a wet spatula, dump the dough onto a floured surface. Use the spatula to fold the edges of the dough up and into the middle, creating a ball shape. Generously flour a cotton towel that is not terry cloth with flour. Place the dough seam side down on the cloth, loosely cover it and let it rest for 2 hours. Put a covered container; lidded, 5-quarts or larger and oven proof; into the oven and preheat it to 450.

    Remove the container from the oven and holding the towel, dump the bread into the container. Shake to evenly distribute dough; cover and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake another 15 or until the crust is golden brown and has a hollow thump when tapped.

    Remove the container from the oven and the bread from the container. Cool the bread on a wire rack. If bread needs to be re-crisped, heat it in a 350 oven for 10 minutes.

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  21. Joy I want a piece of that pineapple upside down cake! I never make it, and it's probably my favorite cake ever.

    Laura

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